Walled Garden - Pavilion Tops-Out!

We recently had the pleasure of marking the topping out of the new flagship Walled Garden Pavilion. In doing this we elected to mark it with two very different traditions.

10.08.2014

After some discussion and research into the tradition of topping out we elected to perform two very different traditions. The first involved the placement of a childs shoe in the walls of the building. From what we can establish this now largely forgotten tradition of placing items in the walls of buildings dates back to the Middle Ages and is thought to bring happiness and vitality to the occupants. Various items have been found in historic houses, with over 50% being a single childs shoe. There are some wonderful finds and information on the Deliberately Concealed Garments website, see http://www.concealedgarments.org

However, we also needed some way to mark reaching this milestone on the building project. In many places this involves raising an ever green tree to the highest point. We fancied something a little different which also had a heritage connection. After a little research we discovered a Dutch tradition called 'pannenbier' or '(roof) tile beer'. In essence a flag is raised by the client (us!) and only lowered by the contractor upon receiving a pint of ale ('pannenbier'). As the mansion was once owned by a brewer we felt this was a good heritage link and had a supply of Budding Ale from Stroud Brewery to mark the occasion.

The event was a great success and as shown in the photograph everyone was in good spirits and once again the Walled Garden provided that perfect backdrop.